


set sights on the bright side

by redflower



Category: RWBY
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, POV Weiss Schnee, Volume 7 (RWBY), both james and winter don't feature but are mentioned and discussed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22656727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redflower/pseuds/redflower
Summary: “Do you think,” Ruby whispers in her ear, breath hot on her neck, “that he was evil?”
Relationships: Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee, Weiss Schnee & Winter Schnee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 122





	set sights on the bright side

**Author's Note:**

> has vol 7. spoilers, so if you're not caught up, don't read. also, takes place after the vol. 7 cliffhanger at some sort of safe-house, it really isn't that important for you to enjoy the story. 
> 
> title is taken from set it off's "Upside Down"

“Do you think,” Ruby whispers in her ear, breath hot on her neck, “that he was evil?” Weiss sighs, turning to face her. 

Her face is flushed, heat radiating off her in waves. Her silver eyes bore into her own, expecting an answer. She’s brilliant, like this, relaxed and calm and right now, this moment, Ruby, is hers. She’s the only person who gets to see her like this, she knows, and she treasures that knowledge fiercely. 

“Who do you mean?” Weiss whispers back, trying not to break the spell. 

“The General.”

She pauses, giving Ruby a chance to elaborate if she wants.

“General Ironwood.” Ruby burrows deeper under the covers, her legs entangling with Weiss’s own. “I wish I could condemn him in a way that matters.”

“What do you mean?”

“That...what he planned to do wasn’t right.” Her voice hardens, turning to iron. “But he had good intentions. He wanted to do the right thing. He just…” She trails off, sighing. “I wish I felt better about condemning him.”

Weiss sighs, shifting to wrap an arm over Ruby’s shoulders, pulling their bodies closer under the blankets. “You did the right thing, Ruby.”

“But I don’t know if that was enough. Maybe if I had told him sooner, he’d-”

“That’s not how it works.” She sighs, surprised by the way her own voice sounds. Harsh, strict. Like Winter’s. “You can’t reason with tyrants, Ruby. He…” She sighs again. “Ironwood was...always complicated. He tried to do the right thing. He just...he got so wrapped up in his own paranoia that he lost sight of people.” 

Ruby rolls over, shifting under her arm, pulling herself closer to Weiss. “I guess. I can’t help feeling like I should have done something.”

“Logically, what would you have done.”

“I don’t know--told him the truth sooner? Stopped him from diverting resources away from Mantle?”

“And what would that have done?”   
“I…” Ruby fidgets with a strand of her hair. Weiss waits for her. Her breaths are in time with her own, a steady pace of rise and fall. “I don’t know.”

“None of us know. Will know. So what’s the point of playing what-ifs and torturing yourself?”

“...god, why do you always have to be riiiight.” She groans, hiding her face in one of the pillows. 

“I think it’s in the title. Weiss Schnee, huntsmen, former heir to the SDC, always right.”

“Mhm.”

They lie there like that, hearts beating in time and breath synced together. It’s times like these that Weiss think she’s the luckiest girl in the world, because she gets to have this. She gets to have Ruby as her best friend and her girlfriend, gets to have her cake and eat it too. 

Sometimes, she can’t help but think that this is some sort of cruel trick the world is playing on her, that she’s going to wake up one day, alone in her room at the Schnee mansion, and still under her father’s control. 

Ruby is warm to her touch, and Weiss pulls her closer, burying her face in her neck. She’s the first to break the silence. “You’re warm.” Her voice is still muffled by the pillow. 

“You’re warmer.”

“Is that even a word.” 

“It...” She tries to come up with a clever retort, but her mind falters. Instead, her thoughts turn to Winter. Winter, who was still with Ironwood. Winter, who let them go. Winter, who was still her sister, despite everything. 

“Everything okay, Weiss?”

“I…” She sighs. “I’m worried about Winter.”

“Oh?”

“I just...she let us go, but she’s still with Ironwood, I just...I just don’t understand.”

“She’ll come around! I’m sure of it. It just takes time, you know.” Ruby rolls over, meeting Weiss’s gaze again. She props herself up with one forearm, head tilting. 

“I don’t know if we have time. Winter…” Weiss sighs, again. “I don’t know how she can side with him. Ironwood...Ironwood was willing to let those people die from the cold.” 

Ruby makes a quizzical sound, and Weiss sits up, pulling the blankets close to her chest, determined to keep some of the warmth with her. 

“Most of the population doesn’t have their aura unlocked. If the Grimm hadn’t gotten to them the cold would. People would have been dead in hours, Ruby, from his negligence and his shortsightedness.”

“Oh…”

“And Winter is just!” Weiss throws her hands down on the covers, the soft quilt dampening the noise, the blanket slothing off of her as she does so. “Going along with it. I just-”

Her voice breaks on the last word. This is the first time that she’s said any of this outloud, and for a fleeting moment, she regrets it. Ruby leans forward, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “It’s hard. I know.”

Weiss leans in, pressing her cheek against Ruby’s, huddling closer to her. Ruby strokes her hair, both of them still for a moment. 

“It’s going to work out. Right?” Weiss breaks the silence first, still pressed tight against Ruby’s side. “It has too.”

“I think it will. I already have you, so.” She smiles, a grin splitting her face as she looks down at her. 

“You’re a sap.”

“But you love it.” Weiss rolls her eyes at that, but unable to stop the smile from stealing on her face. “No way.”

“You doooo.” She drawls, and then, without warning, starts to tickle her. Weiss shireks, backing away from Ruby even as she starts to laugh unwillingly. Ruby’s grin is still present, somehow even wider as she tickles Weiss. 

She squirms away after a few minutes, both of them out of breath from laughing. Ruby is on top of her now, hands planted just outside of her shoulders. 

“Hi.” She whispers, their noses almost touching. 

“Hi.”

Ruby leans down and kisses her, lips soft against Weiss’s own. She tastes like cherries, the same flavor of chapstick that Weiss had given her months and lifetime ago. She kisses back, placing her hands on side of her face, guiding her. 

The kiss is sweet, gentle. They’re both still recovering from Atlas, from the hurt and heartbreak and the what-if that plague them both to do anything but be glad that they’re still with each other. 

It breaks sooner than Weiss wants, and she lets out a little whine when Ruby pulls up. She snorts at that, before turning away, getting up and throwing on her clothes. 

She watches, for a moment. The muscles of her back, the little scars that still are new to her. She wasn’t around when Ruby attained them, wasn’t there to help her avoid them. It still stings, a little bit, the knowledge that she hadn’t been able to protect her partner for any stretch of time.

She turns and starts to get dressed as well. She’s done in a flash, and soon, Ruby is as well. She reaches out a hand to her, and she takes it,linking their fingers together. Weiss smiles, soft and a little sad at her. Ruby grins, and squeezes her hand once. 

“We’re in this, together. Promise.”

She nods, her smile solidifying a bit. They walk out like that, hand in hand, worries and questions, if not forgotten, out of mind for a little while.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr @zombie-bisexual


End file.
